Friday, December 19, 2014

Over the summer, I decided it would be fun to look back through all the mail kids sent me during the 2014-2015 school year. I've picked out some of my favorites and will be posting one every Friday. They truly are inspiring.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

I’ve blogged
about structure many times. About 5 years ago, I tried to come up with my own
categories. I was constantly revising my ideas.

Then Common
Core came along and presented educators with six distinct
groupings—description, sequence/order, compare & contrast, question &
answer, cause & effect, and problem & solution. I’ve tried again and
again to sort existing books into these categories with mixed success.

In the end,
what I’ve realized is that while these categories may reflect the structures
(at least some) educators think students should learn to write, they aren’t
necessarily in line with the nonfiction children’s books being published.

For example,
right now narrative nonfiction is king in the kidlit world. It wins most of the
awards, so editors are eager to publish more. Who can blame them? They work for
companies with owners or stockholders who want to make money, and for the most
part, award-winning books sell more copies.

So we have
lots and lots and lots of narrative nonfiction. In fact, narrative nonfiction is
so plentiful and diverse that I divide it into five subcategories. And yet all
narrative nonfiction is just one subgroup within CCSS’s “sequence” category.

Think about
it. All narrative nonfiction has a sequence structure. The books present
information as a sequence of events. There are also some expository books
written with a sequence structure, so I think it’s safe to say that something
like two-thirds of all nonfiction trade books have this one structure.

Sequence Books

Chronological narrative

Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet

The Boy Who Loved Math by Deborah HeiligmanBuried Alive by Elaine Scott

Friday, December 12, 2014

Over the summer, I decided it would be fun to look back through all the mail kids sent me during the 2014-2015 school year. I've picked out some of my favorites and will be posting one every Friday. They truly are inspiring.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Since October, I’ve
been talking about ways to classify nonfiction in an effort to help both readers
and writers understand the wide array of exciting, dynamic books currently on
the market and how those titles can inform writing instruction.

After thinking
deeply and reading widely, I currently see four main categories of nonfiction
(survey, specialized, concept, biography/autobiography) and three styles
(narrative, expository, persuasive). I have sorted lots of great books
according to this system, and I think that doing so has been a useful exercise.
I’ve learned a lot while doing it.

But here’s
something important to consider. If someone else tried to sort the same books
into the same categories, they might not get the same results. And beyond that,
some other smart, knowledgeable people would probably disagree with my
two-tiered, seven-category classification
system.

At first, this
worried me a lot. I really believed that if I could come up with the right
system, anyone should be able to use it and get the same results. I know that’s
the kind of system educators would like, too. Afterall, it’s easier to teach.

Luckily, I came to
my senses while attending a great presentation given by author-educator Cynthia Jenson-Elliott at the SCBWI annual summer conference in Los Angeles.

At the beginning of
the session, Cindy suggested a nine-category grid for classifying nonfiction. Ugh.
I felt overwhelmed and anxious, but at least some of the category labels were
familiar—narrative nonfiction, concept, biography/autobiography, persuasive. I
trusted Cindy, so I decided to open my mind and see where she was headed.

Cindy had lugged
about 100 books to the session and pre-sorted them into her nine categories.
Our task was to choose a pile, examine the books, and decide if we agreed with
where she had placed them. If not, we should explain why on a sticky note and
move the book to the pile we thought made more sense. Afterward, a few people
had a chance to defend their choices to the group.

A LOT of books
moved around during this activity. Some moved back and forth, back and forth,
as people disagreed. It was fascinating, especially because some of the books
we were sorting had been written by participants.

At the end of the
session, Cindy gathered us all together for two final thoughts.

1.It can be challenging to classify books because some
cross or blend categories. Teachers need to get used to that messiness.

2.Ironclad classification is less important than identifying
how a particular book can be used most effectively as a mentor text. A
teacher’s goal should be to build a collection with a few books that are good
models for teaching similes, a few that can be used to show strong verbs, a few
that make excellent use of alliteration, etc.

These ideas may
seem obvious. But for me, it was the right message at the right moment. It felt
liberating.

Does that mean
there’s little or no value trying to classify books? Absolutely not. There’s
much to be learned from the process—even if the results aren’t satisfying. It’s
about the journey, not the destination.

Friday, December 5, 2014

Over the summer, I decided it would be fun to look back through all the mail kids sent me during the 2014-2015 school year. I've picked out some of my favorites and will be posting one every Friday. They truly are inspiring.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

If you’ve been following my Wednesday posts
for the last few weeks, you know that I’ve been thinking about various ways of
classifying nonfiction and how the categories are related to an author’s
intention(s) as he/she is writing a book.

Just to recap . . . According to my current way
of thinking, there are four nonfiction categories—survey, specialized, concept, and biography/autobiography.
And there are three nonfiction writing styles—narrative, expository, persuasive.

So here’s a question: How are these nonfiction
types and writing styles related to and/or influenced by one another?

Here are my thoughts, and I fully admit that
they are still evolving.

When creating The Guinness Book of World’s Records or The Time for Kids Big Book of Why, the goal was to share snippets
of information that kids would devour. These books cover a lot of ground and are
meant to appeal to a wide swath of upper-elementary kids, including reluctant
readers. So the publishers developed survey books with a fast-fact expository style.

I think it’s safe to say that all survey
books have an expository style. At least I can’t think of any that don’t. Can
you?

When I was writing Feathers: Not Just for Flying, my goal was to describe the
surprising ways some birds use their feathers and to explain how their unusual
feather-related behaviors help them survive in their habitats. My topic was
focused, but I’d be sharing information about many different birds. The best
choice was a specialized book with a facts-plus expository writing style.

Do specialized books always have an
expository style? No way. My book A Place
for Butterflies is a specialized book with a persuasive style, and Chasing Cheetahs by Sy Montgomery is a
specialized book with a narrative style.

Remember the ten specialized books I shared
back on October 15? Here they are sorted by writing style:

When
I was writing the three companion books When
Rain Falls, Under the Snow, and Beneath the Sun, I had a dual purpose
in mind. (1) I wanted readers to understand an abstract concept—that an animal’s
body features and behaviors help it survive in its environment. (2) I wanted
the books to work as bedtime stories.

To achieve my first goal, a concept book was the obvious choice. Many
(most?) concept books have an expository style, but for my books to work well at
bedtime, a narrative style would work better. After much trial and error, I
discovered that showing the passage of time and crafting an ending that linked
strongly back to the beginning created a satisfying circle, making the books
read like stories.

Remember the ten
concept books I shared back on October 15? Here they are sorted by writing
style. Interestingly, both of the
Concept, Narrative books below feature circle stories, just like my three
books. I think this is a reliable pattern.

Concept,
Expository

An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Aston Hutts

Bone by Bone:
Comparing Animal Skeletons by Sarah Levine

Just a Second by Steve Jenkins

Lifetime: The
Amazing Numbers in Animals’ Lives
by Lola Schaefer

Move by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page

Mysterious Patterns: Finding Fractalsin Nature by Sarah C. Campbell

Seeing Symmetry by Loreen Leedy

Swirl by Swirl by Joyce Sidman

Concept,
Narrative

Frog in a Bog by John Himmelman

Trout Are Made of Trees by April Pulley
Sayre

Last but not least is the biography/autobiography
category.

Because these books are the story of a
person’s life, they are generally written with a narrative style. Creating
scenes helps readers feel like they know the main character and understand his/her
actions. But some biographies/autobiographies are also meant to persuade
readers. These books have a combination narrative-persuasive style. Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctors?The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell by
Tanya Lee Stone is a perfect example.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Over the summer, I decided it would be fun to look back through all the mail kids sent me during the 2014-2015 school year. I've picked out some of my favorites and will be posting one every Friday. They truly are inspiring.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

When I first started compiling Common
Core-related book lists in 2012, persuasive writing had me stumped. I couldn’t
think of any good mentor texts.

Then my friend,
writer and school librarian Sam Kane, forwarded me a link to this
an article in Booklist. It discusses
Common Core text types and recommends recently-published science books in each
category.

When I
saw that my
book, A Place for Bats, was included in the persuasive category, I
was stunned.

I didn’t think I was trying to persuade anyone of anything. I was
merely laying out the facts and letting the reader decide. Wasn’t I?

But then I thought about it a little more.

Do I want people to
protect bats and their environments? Yes.

By the end of the
book, are kids going to understand that? Well . . . yes.

Are they going to
take action? They just might.

After having that startling moment
of insight, it became much easier to pick out other persuasive books. Here’s
a list of ten that
I recommend:

Almost
Astronauts
by Tanya Lee Stone

Citizen Scientists by Loree Griffin Burns

City Chickens by Christine
Heppermann

Frog Song by Brenda Z.
Guiberson

Gaia Warriorsby Nicola Davies and James Lovelock

The Girl from Tar Paper Schoolby Teri Kanefield

A Place for Bats by Melissa
Stewart

Write On, Mercy: The Secret Life of Mercy
Otis Warren by
Gretchen Woelfle

Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedomby Sue Macy

Who
Says Women Can’t Be Doctors?The
Story of Elizabeth Blackwell by Tanya Lee Stone

Students may never have to write persuasive
texts as part of their future jobs, but everyone will encounter them in their
adult lives—from product advertisements to political platforms. That’s why all
students should be able to recognize when someone is trying to convince them to
do something or think a certain way, and then be able to step back and
carefully consider whether or not they agree.

Friday, November 14, 2014

Over the summer, I decided it would be fun to look back through all the mail kids sent me during the 2014-2015 school year. I've picked out some of my favorites and will be posting one every Friday. They truly are inspiring.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Rhymes with gory,
purgatory, derogatory, lavatory. Gesh, it’s no wonder authors cringe when
someone uses the word to describe their work. And yet, plenty of great nonfiction
for kids is expository. Its main purpose is to explain, describe, or inform.

Why are authors so
sensitive? Because narrative nonfiction is the new kid on the block, and it’s
getting lots of attention right now. But here’s a little ditty that’s worth
remembering:

Make new friends,

but keep the old.

One is silver,

and the other’s gold.

As far as I’m
concerned, this is a golden moment for expository nonfiction because, in recent
years, it’s gone through an exciting transformation. Once upon a time, it was
boring and stodgy and matter-of-fact, but today’s nonfiction books MUST delight as well
as inform young readers, and nonfiction authors have risen to the challenge.
The books they’re creating feature engaging text, often with a strong voice, as
well as dynamic art and design.

The problem is that not everyone is aware of
these dramatic changes. And that’s why we have to work hard to get terrific expository
books into the hands of as many educators as possible.

Neo Leo by Gene BarrettaTiny Creatures: The World of Microbes by Nicola Davies

What Do
You Do with a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page

There is also a second kind of expository
nonfiction books. Marc Aronson and his Uncommon Corps colleagues call them data books. I prefer to call them fast-fact
books to distinguish them from the facts-plus books listed above.

Facts-plus books focus on facts as well as
overarching ideas. In other words, they present facts and explain them.
Fast-fact books focus on sharing cool facts. Period. They inform, and that’s
all. Examples include The Guinness Book
of World Records, Time for Kids Big
Book of Why, and Eyewitness Books. These are the concise, fact-filled books
that groups of boys love to read together and discuss.

Some people don’t have a very high opinion of
fast-fact books, and to be sure, they don’t build reading stamina or critical
thinking skills, but they do motivate many reluctant readers to pick up a book, and IMHO that alone makes them worthwhile.

Why do students need to be
exposed to a diverse array of expository texts? Because it’s the style of nonfiction
they’ll be asked to write most frequently throughout their school careers and in their future jobs.
Whether they’re working on a report, a thesis, a business proposal, or even a
company newsletter, they’ll need to know how to summarize information and
synthesize ideas in a way that is clear, logical, and interesting to their
readers. Today’s expository children’s literature makes ideal mentor texts for
modeling these skills.

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About Me

Melissa Stewart is the award-winning author of more than 180 nonfiction books for children. Her lifelong fascination with the natural world led her to earn a B.S.
in biology and M.A. in science journalism. When Melissa isn’t writing or speaking to children or educators, she’s usually exploring natural places near her home or around the world.